3 Answers
3

No a question is never so simple to best be left to a google search. Most of the questions posted here so far are also covered on the web, if not all of them. The site is supposed to be a collection of all homebrew questions and a ranking of the valid answers as voted by the community. When you do a web search for an answer you have no idea to what level of confidence you should accept that answer. StackExchange lets you see exactly what a community of like minded people think of an answer.

Having great answers to the simple stuff really makes a big impact on beginning brewers and ultimately helps to grow the community.
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chatcheMar 6 '12 at 21:27

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Sometimes (on other sites and topics) I have searched a question on google, found a similar or same question and it takes me to a forum and the response is go google it. THAT'S HOW I GOT HERE!!!!! lol
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Another Compiler ErrorFeb 4 '14 at 17:27

There are questions that are too simple. For example, "What is malt?". This is homebrewing related, but the answer is in any dictionary, basic text, encyclopedia, wikipedia, etc. If you don't know what malt is, you probably should look it up elsewhere, because you will have a hard time understanding just about anything on the site without this knowledge.

Here's an example of question that is too simple on the site, and I'd argue that it brings down the quality of the site:

No one answered this question, so the asker copied and pasted an answer to his own question from wikipedia (with quotes and attribution). I would say there was some value to having it on the site if it were something where an expert could make a valuable contribution to the subject, but in a question like this, how is that possible?

It's like asking "What is addition? How does it work?" on math.stackexchange.com.

Therefore, I think a close option should be added for reason of being too basic.

The only worry is that it is tricky one to apply, because there is a fine line between something like "What is mashing?" which I think would be too basic and something like "What is conversion?" which I also think is too basic, but has triggered some interest.

I see your point, but I don't think malt is a good example. There was a time when I didn't know what malt is. I had to read it from John Palmer's "How to brew" book. There are many brewers that brew from extract without ever touching malt or understanding how it is made, so it's more than an elementary question.
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mdma♦Jan 27 '14 at 13:16

Ok. Do you think "what are hops?" or "what is yeast?" are too simple? Maybe a better question is, could you give an example of a question that's too simple, or do you believe that no question that someone would actually ask is too simple?
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paulJan 28 '14 at 4:29

YAY that was my question, lol. I knew the answer, I wrote the question to pull people to site from search engines. I thought it would help the site grow. Plus answering such a basic question hopefully would limit it being asked in future when the site grows.
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Another Compiler ErrorFeb 4 '14 at 17:31

I think it was in response to previous idea I posted of pulling in questions that people ask from Youtube homebrew community.
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Another Compiler ErrorFeb 4 '14 at 17:32

Hey, thanks for offering your opinion in the debate. Obviously I disagree with you :) I guess it's a philosophical difference, which seems to be handled differently across StackExchange sites. Some sites say there are questions that are too simple, some don't.
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paulFeb 4 '14 at 21:33

No, If you don't want to answer a simple question then you are free to leave it, but let it ride. Someone else probably will answer it, so leave simple questions to junior members to answer and grow reputation. Intervene if the question is poorly written, answers are incorrect, duplicate question ect ect.